DUCE ROBINSON EARNED his first college football scholarship offer before he even knew how to buckle shoulder pads.
Never having played tackle football, he attended a 7-on-7 tournament prior to his freshman year at Pinnacle (Arizona) High School. Despite his inexperience, his natural ability and massive size (6-foot-4, 200 pounds as a 14-year-old) gave Arizona State coaches all they needed to see to give him an opportunity to play football at the next level.
At that time, Robinson already had a scholarship offer to play baseball at perennial power Arizona.
In the four years since, Robinson has grown to 6-foot-6, 235 pounds and has seen his offer list expand at a similar clip. Not only is he the No. 1 tight end in the class of 2023, he’s a top-100 MLB draft prospect with the potential of earning a seven-figure bonus in July’s draft. He’s only the fifth person to ever play in the Under Armour All-America Game in both football and baseball.
Add it all up and Robinson is the most intriguing college football recruit in the country. He committed to USC last week but has been compared to Aaron Judge by an MLB bench coach. Of course, USC’s football coach, Lincoln Riley, was at Oklahoma when Kyler Murray was a top-10 MLB draft pick but played another season with the Sooners and emerged as a Heisman winner and top overall NFL pick en route to a nine-figure contract with the Arizona Cardinals.
For Robinson, playing two sports is all he has ever known. Beyond Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson proving two-sport stardom is possible, there’s a comp that hits much closer to home. His dad, Dominic, played wide receiver at Florida State under Bobby Bowden starting in 2001 and also balanced baseball under legendary coach Mike Martin. It’s a big reason why Duce Robinson isn’t ready to answer the “Football or baseball?” question just yet.
“He was my inspiration, and you always hear stories about what your parents did, especially when you’re young,” Robinson said. “But when you’re a young kid playing catch, running routes or swinging a bat with him, you hear the stories and think, ‘I could do that and I could do that better than him.’ So my goal since I can remember was to follow in his footsteps and hopefully be better than he was.”
As a result, the question that emerged with that initial 7-on-7 tourney continues to persist for Robinson. Football or baseball? MLB draft or two-sport collegiate stardom? Judge or Murray?
AS THE NO. 40 football recruit in the country, Robinson has a rare combination of size, speed and an ability to reel in passes that make him a matchup nightmare on any level. Over the past two seasons, he had 144 receptions for 2,586 yards and 22 touchdowns. He broke Pinnacle’s single-season records for catches (84) and receiving yards (1,614) in 2022.
He landed offers from some of the top programs in the game — back-to-back national champion Georgia, Texas, Alabama and Oregon among them — but on March 30 committed to USC to play under one of the best offensive minds in the country in Riley.
The two of them had built a connection dating back to when Riley was Oklahoma’s coach. Not only did Robinson feel comfortable with him, his staff and the Trojans’ offense, but he knew Riley had been in this situation before with a player who wanted to pursue both football and baseball.
“He had Kyler Murray and it was recently,” Robinson said. “Coach Riley has done this before with a guy at a super high level and he’s all-in on it. He knows what works, what doesn’t work and it was probably harder to balance it with a quarterback, because it’s such a unique position.”
Murray was the first player to play in the Under Armour All-America Game in both baseball and football in 2014. Since then, four other people have accomplished the feat: Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown, Kansas City Chiefs receiver Jerrion Ealy, Samford outfielder Maurice Hampton Jr. and Robinson.
Robinson plans on arriving at USC in June, moving in, participating in summer workouts and preparing for his freshman season.
A few years ago, he and his mother met Murray on a recruiting visit at Oklahoma. They sat down with the first person to be a first-round pick in both the MLB and NFL drafts for 20 to 30 minutes, talking about what it was like to play both sports. And how attainable it was with a coach like Riley.
ROBINSON’S FAMILY HAS heard of him being compared to New York Yankees outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, who signed professionally out of high school in 2007. Texas Rangers bench coach Donnie Ecker, who has worked with and mentored Robinson over the past few years, compared him to another former MVP.
“Aaron Judge is maybe the only other guy we can comp to have the efficiency of Duce’s bat path and his plate discipline,” Ecker said. “And to know that he’s just a baby when it comes to what he’s going to grow into. I think Aaron Judge is the closest comp I have at this age.”
ESPN baseball analyst Kiley McDaniel has Robinson, listed as an outfielder, as the No. 84 draft prospect this summer. He is described as still being raw, but scouts believe his rare physical tools, which can’t be taught, will help him succeed in the sport.
Whether Robinson is chosen in the first round, fifth round or much later in the MLB draft depends on a variety of factors — how he performs this spring, what his contract demands are, whether teams believe he wants to go to college and more. Robinson’s options and the draft’s financial slotting system make projecting his status with any certainty this early extremely difficult.
He wants to prove to MLB scouts that his potential is worth allocating a high draft pick. Major league teams want him to get reps on the baseball field at their level, and Robinson plans on continuing his already stringent workout regimen, practicing his technique, participating in the MLB combine and working out with teams privately.
Most baseball players selected in the draft will spend three to five years in a minor league system, climbing the ranks to hopefully one day make The Show.
“We’re just trying to get ready for the draft right now. We’re ready for everything and hopefully I get drafted highly,” Robinson said. “And then the goal from there would be to play college football and hopefully be able to sign a professional baseball contract so I could play both that way.”
While it isn’t likely, there is a scenario in which no MLB team selects him in the draft, or he could be a late selection. If that situation plays out, the family believes they have the leverage because of Robinson’s commitment to USC. Playing three years of football and baseball for the Trojans could set him up for success for the future if he can continue to develop his talents.
THE NCAA ALLOWS student-athletes to play college football after being drafted by a major league organization. If he signs a contract with a professional baseball team, he won’t have college eligibility in baseball, which is fine with Robinson as long as he has his shot at an MLB contract.
College football is already a full-time job for athletes trying to manage their schedules, classes, workouts and team obligations. Adding in the commitment of being a professional athlete in another sport is a challenge Robinson welcomes.
“The first couple years in the minor leagues, they’re super flexible with those guys, where the major leagues it usually leaks into football season a little bit,” Robinson said. “But, baseball would be in the summer and then football is during the fall. So, the plan right now is to continue to play football for as long as possible and baseball for as long as possible.”
Robinson’s mother, Mary Beth, swam competitively at Florida. Dominic was a highly touted prospect coming out of high school in the same recruiting class as Matt Leinart and Larry Fitzgerald. He was a two-sport athlete, playing both football and baseball his freshman year. Under Bowden, he moved from defensive back to wide receiver, where he recorded 680 receiving yards and two touchdowns from 2002 to ’04. Once his college career was over, he signed with the then-St. Louis Rams after the 2005 NFL draft.
Robinson says he believes he, too, can play both sports for as long as his body is willing to let him. He doesn’t foresee needing to decide between the two as long as someone will let him play both at the highest levels.
Dominic remembers the pressure he felt when he was going through the recruiting process, playing football at the highest level and balancing baseball as well. He said he hasn’t put any pressure on his son to recreate his own career, encouraging him to experience everything for himself, make his own decisions and forge his own path.
“He’s super driven, he’s goal-oriented and his goal was to be a professional sports player,” Dominic said. “Going to college for a sport was one of the steps on that path, but he knows what it takes to get to what his ultimate goal is.”
AT AN EARLY age, Duce stood a head above his peers and was among the fastest kids, whether it was at recess or on a field. Dominic said jokingly that his son had biceps before he could even walk.
The Robinsons lived in Dallas, but Dominic worked as an assistant football coach at the University of West Georgia, so he would travel to and from Texas, which meant he would begrudgingly miss some important events for Duce and his younger brother, Dyson.
One moment that especially stuck out in Dominic’s mind was when 5-year-old Duce told him he made the McKinney Little League All-Star team, which was composted mostly of 7-year-olds. Dominic broke down in tears not just because he wasn’t present for the accomplishment, but because he knew at that moment his son was special.
“We were certainly not expecting him to become one of the best athletes in the country, but we knew that he had that level of engagement,” the father said.
Dominic worked in college athletics for most of Duce’s childhood. The family moved to Des Moines, Iowa, when he took an assistant coaching job at Drake University in 2014. He left college athletics to start 3D Performance, a training facility and program that works with athletes at all levels in baseball, then moved the family to Phoenix in 2016.
There is where Dominic met then-Arizona baseball coach Jay Johnson. Johnson had offered scholarships to a few of Dominic’s other 3D players, but watching Duce’s skills and size as an eighth-grade outfielder playing alongside high school upperclassmen convinced him to offer Duce his first scholarship.
Dominic built a connection with Ecker, the Rangers’ bench coach, through mutual connections five years ago. Ecker, 37, has since become a big brother of sorts to Duce, working with his on-field mechanics and guiding him through the mental side of the game. Despite being around major league players his whole life, he says Duce already thinks and works like a major leaguer.
“I’m around 18-to-35-year-old baseball players every day, and I’m working with Duce at 7:30 p.m. in Surprise, Arizona, in a cage when it’s raining outside,” Ecker said. “After he’s had school, weights, he drove an hour to get there and I look in his eyes. I just know this person is different and he’s not someone I’m going to bet against.”
Johnson wasn’t the only coach to be wowed by Duce’s abilities. Upon seeing Duce at the 7-on-7 tournament for the first time, Dana Zupke, who has been Pinnacle High School’s football coach for the past 18 seasons, knew a player of his caliber wouldn’t come around every year.
Still, despite Duce’s natural talent, not every aspect of football came easy to him. He had some shortcomings early on in his career — even learning to catch the ball took time. It was Duce’s work ethic and attention to detail that stood out to him.
In Zupke’s eyes, there was one driving force.
“What keeps coming up is, ‘My dad played both in college and I want to be like my dad.’ That’s what I hear probably more than anything,” Zupke said. “There’s ambition there and I know he wants to play both professionally. But I think it really comes down to his sense of family and identity, and I think he wants to emulate somebody that he admires and respects the most probably in this world, which is Dominic.”
IN SOME WAYS, the next few months will be familiar for Robinson — at least when it comes to his regimen: training, sprinting, lifting, batting practice four to five times a week and continuing to develop his fundamentals.
Balancing both sports, which he has done the past few years, has come naturally. Knowing his father played both sports normalized it for him. It’s what he grew up with and all he’s known. He’s watched film and studied Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders, both of whom reached stardom in the NFL and MLB.
“Deion was incredible at both sports, but Bo Jackson was the offensive guy,” Robinson said. “He was an outfielder, as well, so I’ve always looked up to him a little more than Deion. But, obviously, Deion is a super big inspiration as well.”
Robinson says he believes he can make it to both the NFL and MLB and wants to try for as long as coaches and organizations will let him. The NFL doesn’t allow athletes to enter the draft until they’re three years removed from high school, which gives him his timeline for football, but his MLB path will largely depend on his development in the minor leagues.
His path in both sports could also be impacted by the results of the MLB draft. If he’s selected in the first few rounds, would the bonus money be enough to get him to choose baseball over football? Would an MLB organization try to convince him to stick with baseball and spurn college? Does he end up being a two-sport collegiate athlete with his dream of the pros still in front of him?
The next few months can determine how the next few years will play out and how quickly he reaches his goals. He can’t predict everything that’ll happen, how long he’ll have to grind it out in the minors, or what his NFL draft stock could look like in 2026 or 2027.
Right now, Robinson is focused only on the present and what’s in front of him. As his summer of change approaches, as he prepares to take his skills to two new levels, Dominic can’t help but think about that little boy telling his father he made his all-star team.
“This will be a busy summer and it will start to get real when he reports to his school in June,” Dominic said. “He’ll do that while also preparing to become a major league baseball player. That’s a childhood dream and it’s just something that … I can’t believe that he’s doing it.
Washington Nationals slugger James Wood will bring his massive power to the big stage, becoming the third player to commit to the July 14 Home Run Derby in Atlanta.
Wood, 22, has delivered 22 home runs in 86 games during his first full major league season. He was acquired by the Nationals in 2022 as part of the package of top prospects Washington received in the trade that sent Juan Soto to the San Diego Padres.
Wood announced the commitment on Instagram, with a video montage of himself, along with video clips of former Atlanta Braves star Hank Aaron hitting his record 714th home run in 1974. The video included the words, “Derby bound.”
Wood has 12 homers that have been hit harder than 110 mph. It’s the second most in the league behind Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani‘s 13. Wood also has four dingers that have been launched longer than 445 feet.
Raleigh, who would become the first catcher to win the event, has a major-league-best 33 home runs. Acuna has nine home runs in 36 games after returning from a torn left ACL that also limited him to 49 games last season.
DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez‘s setback to his recovery from a fractured right hand is not as serious as first feared, general manager Dana Brown said Thursday.
Alvarez, who suffered the injury on May 2, was shut down after experiencing pain in his right hand. He had taken some swings at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday and when he arrived there Tuesday, the area was sore.
He was examined by a specialist, who determined inflammation was the issue and not a setback with the fracture.
“It had nothing to do with the fracture, or the fracture not being healed,” Brown said before Houston’s game at Colorado. “The fracture at this point is a nonfactor, which we’re very glad about. And so during the process of him being examined by the specialist, we saw the inflammation, and Yordan did receive two shots in that area.”
Alvarez first experienced issues with his hand in late April but stayed in the lineup. He was initially diagnosed with a muscle strain but a small fracture was discovered at the end of May.
Brown said there has not been an update on the timetable for Alvarez’s return but said with the latest update it “could be in the near future.”
“Yordan is going to be in a position where he’s going to let rest and let the shot take effect, and then as long as he’s starting to feel better, we’ll put a bat in his hand before we start hitting, but we’ll just let him feel the bat feels like,” Brown said. “And then we’ll get into some swings in the near future, but I felt like it was encouraging news. Now, with this injection into the area that was inflamed, we feel a lot better.”
Alvarez, who averaged 34 home runs over the previous four seasons, has just three in 29 games this year and is batting .210. He was the 2021 ALCS MVP for the Astros and finished third in the AL MVP voting for 2022.
Cleveland Guardians right-hander Luis Ortiz is under investigation by Major League Baseball after a betting-integrity firm flagged a pair of pitches that had received unusual gambling activity, sources told ESPN on Thursday.
Sources said betting-integrity firm IC360 sent an alert in June to sportsbook operators regarding Ortiz, whom MLB has placed on “non-disciplinary paid leave” through July 17.
The alert, according to sources who reviewed it, referenced action on Ortiz’s first pitches in select innings to be a ball or a hit batsman in two games: June 15 against the Seattle Mariners and June 27 against the St. Louis Cardinals. In both the bottom of the second inning against the Mariners and the top of the third inning against the Cardinals, Ortiz threw a first-pitch slider that was well outside the strike zone.
The alert on Ortiz’s first pitches flagged bets in Ohio, New York and New Jersey. Betting on the result of first pitches is offered by some sportsbooks, with such wagers commonly referred to as microbets.
Ortiz’s paid leave, which ends at the conclusion of the All-Star break, was negotiated between the league and the MLB Players Association. If the investigation remains open, the leave could be extended.
Ortiz had been scheduled to start Thursday night’s game against the Chicago Cubs.
“The Guardians have been notified that Luis Ortiz has been placed on leave per an agreement with the Players Association due to an ongoing league investigation,” the team said in a statement. “The Guardians are not permitted to comment further at this time and will respect the league’s confidential investigative process.”
The investigation into Ortiz’s potential violation of the league’s gambling policy comes a little more than a year after MLB levied a lifetime ban against San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano for placing nearly 400 bets on baseball. Four other players received one-year suspensions for gambling on baseball while in the minor leagues. In February, MLB fired umpire Pat Hoberg — widely recognized as the best ball-strike arbiter in the game — for “sharing” a legal sports betting account with a friend who bet on baseball and later deleting messages key to the investigation.
A 26-year-old starting pitcher, Ortiz was acquired by Cleveland from the Pittsburgh Pirates over the winter as part of the three-team trade in which the Guardians sent second baseman Andres Gimenez to the Toronto Blue Jays. With a 4-9 record and 4.36 ERA, Ortiz has been a staple in a Guardians rotation whose 4.13 ERA ranks 18th in MLB.
Ortiz’s leave comes amid a slide for the Guardians, who have lost six consecutive games to drop to 40-44. While Cleveland remains in second place in the American League Central, it trails first-place Detroit by 12½ games.
Ortiz signed with the Pirates in 2018 at 19 years old, far later than the typical prospect, and didn’t reach full-season ball until 2021. He quickly shot through the Pittsburgh organization and debuted in 2022, eventually throwing 238⅓ innings and posting a 3.93 ERA in his three seasons with the Pirates.
